By Jocelyn Cano

January 28, 2014

This year’s “Resolutionhosted by the Office of Student Involvement, was postponed when the Chicagoland area was hit with record low temperatures of -16 degrees.

For the hugely hyped event, it was becoming commonplace to hold the event the day before the beginning of the spring semester but dangerous temperatures forced Student Involvement to push back the event in favor of student safety.

“We were so excited to have resolution and welcome students back to campus,” Assistant Director of Student Involvement Katie Kramer said. “In making the decision, we thought primarily about the safety of the students who would attend. We did not want to encourage students to be outdoors and try to make it to campus when it was so dangerously cold.”

What made the decision even more difficult was the fact that attendance for the event seemed to be trending upwards, with a postponement possibly hurting attendance this year.

“One hundred and forty students were registered for this year’s “Resolution”, which was a 20 percent increase from last year’s registration, which consisted of 120 students,” Student Involvement Coordinator Ian Van Anden said.  

Apart from the large number of registered students, a large number of faculty and staff were a part of the process to make Resolution possible. Fifteen guest speakers, the Honors Program, Dining Services, Physical Plant, Security, IT and Nutrition Club were all working together during Resolution in conjunction with OSI.

Student Involvement, along with all its supporters, is making sure that the abrupt postponement of the event won’t have an impact in the previously planned schedule.

“We are working hard to ensure that postponing Resolution will have a minimal impact on the conference itself,” Van Anden said. “Whenever you have change of this magnitude, you can always expect things to be different, but like I said, we are working very hard to ensure we have a topflight conference for all those involved.”

The new official date for Resolution is Feb. 23 and OSI is confident that the postponing the conference will not affect attendance.

“We are hopeful that those who registered will still be able to join us,” Kramer said. “It is possible that the new date will create a conflict for some folks [but], it may also make attendance possible for some who previously couldn’t make it due to holiday travel or family commitments during break.”